Exposed (Blu-ray Review)
As New York City Detective Scotty Galban (Keanu Reeves) investigates the death of his partner, he begins to unravel clues about disturbing police corruption and a dangerous secret leading him to a troubled young woman (Ana de Armas), who holds the key to solving his partner’s murder.
Film 
Exposed aka Daughter of God is a new police-procedural-thriller of a film starring Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas. Reeves stars as Detective Galban. He’s on the search of the killer or killers of his partner. Ana de Armas plays Isabel, a young lady, with seemingly no connection to the events that Galban is investigating. She lives in Brooklyn, with her parents, her husband is overseas in the military and so forth.
One night after hanging out with some friends and family at a local nightclub, Isabel walks through the subway terminal and sees strange figures in white, with weird facial characteristics. She cannot explain this but is quick to say that she may have just had a religious experience. She’s met with optimism at first by those around her but it’s obvious that they are just humoring her.
As Galban moves along with his partner’s investigation he begins to unravel clues that paint his partner as dirty and the police department as corrupt. Galban has to tread lightly, because a police officer asking too many questions about another police officer that may not have been on the level is not a good thing. As Isabel goes about her daily life her visions continue to amplify and she begins to see random and surrealistic figures out in the street. She has no explanation as to what they could but whatever they are she’s not necessarily sure if she’s afraid of them.
I can consider myself one of the lucky ones. I had no idea what the Exposed was about and I definitely didn’t know that the director took the name off of the film after the studio recut and repackaged the film for mass consumption. I watched the film with an open mind – and thoroughly enjoyed the film. Yeah, it’s not perfect but it’s certainly not unwatchable. The criticisms are unfair and reek of folks who have been reading reviews before actually making up their own minds. I was pleasantly surprised by how well this version of the film turned out.
Also, if you feel that you’re getting some deja vu, it’s because you are. Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves starred in Knock Knock together last year. It’s Reeves’ involvement with the picture and his recommendation of Ana that got her the gig. I think the casting decisions were spot on in terms of casting some seasoned name actors along with familiar characters actors and mixing in a large cast of supporting actors who may or may not have long acting resumes. I should also point out that the film is in English and Spanish (English subtitles light up automatically when folks start speaking Spanish). It’s quite the multileveled film and folks should give Exposed a chance. Maybe if Exposed gets a decent following we can get the Daughter of God recut version released someday? I would love to see that version.
Video
Encoding: AVC/MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Clarity/Detail: The film takes place in Brooklyn and depending on the scene may or may not look a bit bright or nippy. Contrast and sharpness levels are strong and there were no signs of aliasing or postproduction tweaks to the overall image.
Depth: The picture quality always looked great and never did look flat or soft. For such a panned film they gave the Blu-ray a lovely video transfer. I cannot find anything wrong with the image.
Black Levels: Black levels were nice and natural and never suffered from crush or compression artifacts.
Color Reproduction: The color palette was bright and bold in parts but could also be quite subdued. Certain scenes had a slight sepia tone to them and you guys know how much I love sepia.
Flesh Tones: Everyone looked great – no one appeared to be sickly or splotchy.
Noise/Artifacts: I did not spot any instances of noise or artifacts on this Blu-ray presentation.
Audio
Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, English SDH
Dynamics: Exposed gets a powerful DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Exposed may be a primarily dialogue driven film but that doesn’t stop the soundtrack from delivering some serious heat. There are several scenes that involve more than just verbal jousting.
Low Frequency Extension: The LFE subwoofer channel handles the low-end bass levels in expert fashion.
Surround Sound Presentation: The surround channels handle ambience, music, and surround sound effects rather well.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue levels were outstanding,
Extras
The extras are rather slim but you can actually watch as the actors being interviewed talk candidly about how cool it was working on the film known as Daughter of God, which would later be changed to Exposed. There’s a bit of fluff in the first featurette but then the longer interviews featured shed some light on the film. Keep in mind no crew or director insight is present on this release. The special features are presented in high definition.
- The Making Of Exposed Featurette (HD)
- Extended Cast Interviews (HD)
- Trailer Gallery (HD)
- Digital HD Copy
Summary 
Honestly, going into Exposed without having read any synopsis, watching trailers, or having read the trades about the mess that ensued was the best thing I could have done in terms of reviewing the film with an open mind. Exposed, as is, is a pretty damn good film. Sure, the original version is probably better, but I honestly think that the studio, in this case, wanted to actually retain some sort of integrity of what the director wanted. Granted, I have not spoken to the studio or director, so I cannot comment on that. I can say that the Blu-ray looked and sounded great and watching the interviews and making-of featurette led me to believe that the cast was totally into the original project that was entitled Daughter of God. Stuff happens but in the end I actually liked Exposed.
Exposed is available on Blu-ray & DVD.
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